This Mask Hides How I Have Twisted
by Pokelolmc
Summary: BE anime AU. Rin runs away, just under a month after the camping trip, when he gets fed up of being persecuted for being the son of Satan, leaving Yukio with looming regret and oblivious to how Rin was twisted. Two and a half years later, the exorcists are confronted by a mysterious masked man out for justice.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Hello! School finished recently, so its hellish habit of throwing a tight and busy exam schedule has finally ceased until next year! Woohoo! Anyway, finally with the chance to get some decent writing done, I am taking the chance to try and get fanfiction worked on during these holidays.**

 **I happened to randomly stumble upon the** _ **Blue Exorcist**_ **anime (which I had heard of but hadn't paid attention to until then) only the day before yesterday and decided to, in the first time I ever watched it, marathon the whole thing from three in the afternoon to like two-thirty in the morning – I mean, why the hell not? It was there in front of me! And I had a mental blank on what to do that particular day! Plus, I loved it, and couldn't just stop watching! I've only been in the fandom for very literally** _ **two days**_ **, so I have yet to pick up the manga after watching the anime (because the anime was the first thing I found) and since I decided once before I'd make it a personal challenge for myself that I write a fanfiction for something within my first week in its fandom, I decided to take up said challenge with** _ **Blue Exorcist**_ **. I had this plot bunny swirling around my head prominently (and unlike every other unnecessary plot bunny, this one I was actually able to write from start to finish without getting a mental blank partway through) and I had a feeling writing it was a good way to shrug off some of the writer's block and get myself in the proper fanfic mood.**

 **Plus, it'd make a good reassurance that I'm not dead.**

 **So since it was actually a finished plot bunny, I thought I'd post it.**

 **It's also the first story I've published involving** _ **Code Geass,**_ **which I got into way back in March and had tons of plot bunnies about it bugging me, but they were almost all dead ends, so I never published anything _Code Geass_ …not even a oneshot, until now. I'll probably add some of the CG plot bunnies to my Plot Bunny Adoption Centre list of unwanted ideas on my profile page (eventually) if you want to nurture and write one. Unfortunately, **_**Code Geass**_ **isn't the prominent anime of this story –** _ **Blue Exorcist**_ **is. The most** _ **Code Geass**_ **elements in this story are Zero, character's reactions to Zero and events parodying the events surrounding Zero's rise and his speeches.**

 **EDIT: This was SUPPOSED to be a simple standalone story, but I've decided to continue it (blame the reviewers for their continuation requests that I just can't resist no matter how small. GAH I'm too soft dammit!) Don't expect it to get a huge lot of frequent attention, though. It's just a writer's outlet fic. If it's getting lots of frequent attention, then I'm far too stumped on my big projects to come up with anything and I'm writing down any ideas I get for this fic to try and get the creative juices flowing again.  
**

 **This is a story on what a** _ **Blue Exorcist**_ **version of Zero's** _ **Code Geass**_ **rise/debut would probably look like. It's basically meant to alternatively mimic the events surrounding the beginning of Zero but with lots of changed things like characters, setting and detailed incidents to fit the** _ **Blue Exorcist**_ **universe. (It was kind of inspired from reading the** _ **Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion**_ **manga, which follows the anime's basic plot but with many divergences to suit major differences like the absence of Knightmare Frames) I threw in a few prominent phrases, words and gestures from the original Zero and Black Knights debut speeches in** _ **Code Geass**_ **into this alternate speech (which is a merge of the two speeches by the basic purpose of it, with the detailed wording itself of my own idea) as a sort of nod to the original thing. You CG fans should be able to pick up these particular references ;)**

 **Just to make you aware, this will stay a oneshot – with all the stories and writer's block I'm already juggling on my plate, I don't ever intend to continue it, so please don't ask me to. This is like a random idea simply being written and shared, not a bodied and full-fledged story in the making, but if someone else wants to adopt it and write more on it in order to see it continued into a full story, then that's fine by me.**

 **Lastly, this is set in an AU of the** _ **Blue Exorcist**_ **anime verse (as I've said before, I haven't read the manga yet), where Rin leaves True Cross Academy and is twisted into an anti-hero after interpreting the unfair treatment of passive creatures/demons and the racist hate against he himself for being Satan's son as blind discrimination drilled into the Exorcists by a corrupt leadership body. As such, characters may or certainly be OOC because of different events for character development, and the ending events of the anime involving Pope Ernst and Satan will have gone differently, because of Rin's absence from True Cross in the months and days leading up, in order to still be resolved, and the alternative way that incident played out shall be explained. (Also, in the time gap between the anime's end and the time setting of this fic, Yukio has been given an eventual promotion.)  
**

 **Without further ado, I've gone on long enough. Enjoy**

 **(Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or Blue Exorcist. I never will. I am just a fan with a story idea.)**

 **This Mask Hides How I Have Twisted**

Recently-turned 18-year-old Yukio Okumura, Upper 2nd Class Exorcist and still teacher at True Cross Academy, grit his teeth in frustration as he scoured through the numerous reports in front of him. The members of the Grigori were assassinated, right under the Vatican and Knights of the True Cross's noses, and Yukio was given a position in the investigation. Exorcists were scouring for evidence of the killer, but no traces could be found. The only possibility was a demon was involved – if any demonic energy could be traced, that is.

He sighed, placing the heavy paper wads, teeming with excuses on lack of evidence and what little data they actually had, down on his table, accidentally knocking down a number of his desk ornaments in the process. He picked each one up, adjusting it before placing it back down, until there was one disoriented object left. His hand paused hesitantly as it brushed over the last one – a photo from three years prior of him and his older (by barely a sliver of time) brother.

'Nii-san...' he thought solemnly as he cast his eyes over the grinning face of a 15-year-old Rin Okumura, clad in his True Cross Academy uniform, captured in the still picture.

He missed Rin.

The older Okumura twin had disappeared two and half a years ago, and all searches for him –over his first six months of being missing, and even after that – had been fruitless. Yukio feared his sibling may have been – at some point – attacked, kidnapped, killed or all of the former by demons drawn to the powerful presence of a son of Satan. It was not without notice that Rin went missing just under a month after his true identity as a half-demon and spawn of the King of Gehenna was revealed to his classmates at a training camping trip. He was constantly ignored and avoided like the Bubonic Plague, sneered at, rejected, and bad mouthed about in mutters by his peers. Even Yukio had been, in the least, cold towards his twin on the sore spot of their adoptive father, Shiro Fujimoto's, death, in spite of knowing of Rin's (and also his own, of course) Satanic heritage long before Rin knew himself.

Yukio knew that the initial disappearance of Rin was the latter's attempt – successful attempt – at running away from the persecution teeming in the school.

What struck the younger Okumura hard was that he had a part in being responsible for it. He promised he would protect his big brother, but instead of trying to console Rin and help him cope with all the gossip, finger-pointing and loneliness, he aided in adding to the pile of this strife that tore his only other true family member's mind and self-esteem apart – piece by piece.

At one point, in a disaster a few months after the disappearance, he could have sworn his brother was there.

Yukio had been tricked by their grandfather, the then-recently-elected Pope Ernst, into a plan of the mass spilling of demon blood to open a Gehenna Gate and send in a scientifically-produced warhead called Messiah to destroy all of Gehenna in a humongous genocidal act that would throw natural balance into chaos. However, the plan backfired when the warhead did little to no damage and Satan took advantage of the Gate to come into Assiah and begin his action of merging the two worlds into one, taking over Yukio's body as a vessel to hold his energy as he undertook his plan.

Right when Yukio was in the dark abyss, without control of his own body or awakened demon powers that were mixed with Satan's, he heard Rin calling to him. His fighting in the desperateness to see the lost owner of that voice had been what made him break his body free from their biological father, the Demon Lord's, control.

In the subsequent events, he seized full control of his own body as he felt the demonic power of his blue flames, that everyone thought he had not inherited, gain intensity. Either that, or they were somehow being added to...By Rin...but to his dismay, he could see no sign of his twin brother, even before the almost overwhelming flames practically blinded his vision with blue and white and he charged, in the fire's midst, straight into the Gehenna Gate to destroy it.

Unsure whether or not that calling from his brother had been a dream, he did not let it become a negative beacon.

For the rest of the little time he was allowed to search, it gave him hope, and when his brother was never found and the search cut off, it became his determination for justice and...possibly vengeance; to protect others much better from demon-kind than he was able to protect Rin, for Rin's sake.

And that was why, back in the present two and a half years later, he was sub-commanding the search for whoever, or whatever, killed the Grigori members, as a proud and loyal exorcist of the Knights of the True Cross.

For revenge. For justice. For Rin.

Suddenly, he was snapped out of his thoughts by the strong vibrating of his mobile phone. Getting ready to ask what information had been found, he had no time to speak as one of his subordinate's voices burst through the device the very moment Yukio pressed the answer button.

"SIR! Turn over to the Vatican's main broadcast channel! Hurry! There's this thing saying that an important announcement concerning the deaths of the Grigori will be commencing shortly!"

'What!?' Professor Okumura thought in shock, 'But I'm the sub-commander of this investigation! If this is something regarding the Grigori murders, why I was not previously informed of this!?'

He turned on the electronic screen in his office and flicked to the Vatican's main broadcast stream – a channel used to relay worldwide messages regarding demons and exorcist issues to the part of the world involved in the supernatural, whilst keeping the normal world that was oblivious to the existence of real demons completely blind to the network.

As soon as he got to the channel, the screen was covered by the typical film countdown from five – which was down to three by the time he flicked to the channel.

However, the "message" was far from what anyone had been expecting.

Square centre, in the middle of the footage, was a dark green cloth flag with a cross and the kanji characters for "Knights of the True Cross" emblazoned on it.

In a mere few seconds of silence, the cloth "flag" burned to ashes from the bottom up, revealing behind it a white background that starkly contrasted to the figure standing in the middle of the shot – a bat-like figure (man?), with the rest of his attire, except for a white cravat, obscured from vision by a golden-trimmed, black cape with a high collar. A sleek, interesting mask hid the mystery man's face, a smoothly-overlapping layout of black layers and prongs that protected this person's identity from the rest of the world with a purple, round, reflective visor covering the front and centre, directly over the face area.

As Yukio stared in utter confusion, the masked man on the broadcast, who most definitely was NOT affiliated with the Vatican, raised a black, gloved hand out from under his cape, revealing a dark-purple one-piece suit with golden-yellow lining down the front from the neck to the legs and light purple, stick-out arm sleeve cuffs covered in yellow curved lines. A masculine-sounding voice called out, distorted with the use of a voice scrambler. The device hiding the specifics of the sound did not, however, hide the deep, loud, charismatic tone of the masked person's speaking.

"I am...Zero!"

'Zero? As in, nothing?' Yukio mused in confusion at this figure's appearance. Then he suddenly realised something must have been wrong, if a person like the figure whom now stood before the demon-fighting world, was on a broadcast. 'Oh no...'

Rushing for his keys, he took the location key given to him to go to the Vatican. Luckily the main channel's broadcast room was not too far in the main entrance where key users were transported into the Vatican Headquarters. As he was instantaneously transported in, he ran to the broadcast room as fast as his legs could carry him, continuing to watch Zero's message on a mobile device in the meantime.

"As I'm sure that the reason you're watching this right now is because of the beforehand mention of the deaths of the Grigori members, I shall not disappoint you." the masked man continued, spreading both his arms wide in an intense gesture with a rising tone to match.

"The members of the Grigori, and the other high ranks of the Knights of the True Cross and the Vatican...taking glory in their absolute jurisdiction over how good and evil are determined...How their closed-minded foolishness leads all the Exorcists on the unjust belief that to be human means to be good, and to be a demon means you don't deserve to live, all because you were born differently... A corrupt and judgemental society no better than Social Darwinism, to which it can be indeed likened, despite looking so different on the outside.

It is not just. They are poisoning the world with unfair and racist ideals, preaching this to and twisting the young Exorcists of this generation so they are as blinded and bloodthirsty as their mentors and the Exorcists who came before them! It is their foolish way of ruling that has widened the rift between the now and a better future!"

"What are you doing!?" Yukio shouted to the workers in the Vatican broadcast room as the previous part of the message was playing, "Don't just sit there! Turn it off!"

"We've tried!" one worker replied desperately, rushing over from the other side of the room, "But we can't! The system's been hacked!"

Yukio's eyes widened as he turned to watch Zero's message on one of the numerous screens with a speaker on the wall in the broadcast room, 'Impossible! How could someone have so easily hacked the Vatican's main channel!? We are up against one formidable enemy...'

"...Therefore, in order to start the reform of this world into a place of justice..."

The masked man's next sentence would cement him forever in Yukio's mind and the rest of history.

"...I killed the members of the Grigori."

The bespectacled Okumura teen froze on the spot, his mind overflowing with shock like a downhill town left victim to a burst dam.

This "Zero" person was their culprit?! Was he a human, or demon? Did he commit the act, or was he just claiming credit for it and taking advantage of the attention and following chaos? If he was really the culprit, did he do it alone...or did he have comrades?

'He claims to do this as an act against so-called injustice enforced by the Vatican, and to an extent, Exorcists...But is that just a farce? If so, what is his real motive?'

Chaos erupted around him in the broadcast room as he pondered.

'He must be an extremist terrorist who has too much skill or equipment!'

Over in an office at True Cross Academy, a certain crazily-clad demon was taking in the publicly shown self-confession with a pinch of worry drowned by an overflow of excitement.

"Oh, so the culprit rears his head, 'ey?" Mephisto mused aloud, stroking the fur on Amaimon's rodent form sleekly, "This is getting very interesting, indeed!"

Back in the Vatican HQ broadcasting room, Yukio was snapped out of his thoughts as Zero resumed his talking on screen, after pausing in his speech to let the horrendous bombshell sink in.

"Why did I murder the members of the Grigori, you ask? TO START THE END OF THE UNJUST TYRANNY!" he raised one fist to the sky in a drastic, determined gesture, "All this time, humans have incorrectly lumped all demons together as scum and killed them blindly as punishment for being born as what they are and for the sake of "cleansing" Assiah! As many of you, especially those in the vicinity of True Cross Academy would know, near the end of the year before last, a mass murder of demons was undertaken by the Late Pope Ernst in order to open a Gate using enough demon blood and to send a warhead to Gehenna that would wipe out the entire realm!

Gehenna may be the realm of darkness and bearer of demons, but it also produces some good, just as Assiah is a world of light that holds its own lesser amount of darkness!

Gehenna is the Yin to Assiah's Yang!

And out of all the demons lined up for slaughter, many rampaging creatures were simply lords and guardians angry at the murdering of their kind and disrespect towards their land! They were content living with humans if mutual respect was given, but humanity, under their leaders' instructions, betrayed them!

The plan, Jacob's Ladder, was a catastrophic genocide that proved a wanton and meaningless act in the end! All it achieved was to throw people and demons alike into chaos! As such, I have executed the Grigori members for their cooperation and allowing of this monstrosity! I have dealt them their punishment...

…TO TAKE BACK FOR WHAT HAPPENED TWO YEARS AGO!"

Upon those words, Yukio's rage began to flare.

'So he's doing this for revenge!? Killing the Grigori simply for revenge!? That monster!'

But a suspicion of his own vulnerability began to take over him at Zero's next words.

"But for those who helped and co-conspired with Ernst, the Grigori are just the beginning! Some of the other figures that headed Operation Jacob's Ladder still remain, and they shall also be punished for their deeds in that horror!

I know what you are thinking. You believe I am a demon sore about the past and out for vengeance. But you are wrong! It does not matter whether I am a demon or a human, and I shall not stop you if you wish to try figure it out for yourself, because of its INSIGNIFICANCE!

What matters is who I side with! But I am not siding with Satan's demons, nor am I on the side of the Exorcists! WHO I SIDE WITH... ARE THE WEAK! Those humans that demons torment to misery for the fun of it, and the demons and creatures whom want to live on their land but are killed by humans for simply existing as what they are! Those are the beings I side with and protect! I AM THE ALLY OF NEITHER SIDE ENGAGED IN THIS CURRENT STRUGGLE!

I AM THE ALLY OF THE POWERLESS!

AND THE ALLY OF JUSTICE!"

With his hands having retreated to his sides after the gestures that accompanied his previous words, he forcefully flung out his right arm, his black cape with a red interior dramatically billowing behind him.

"THOSE WITH POWER, SATAN'S SERVANTS AND THE VATICAN... FEAR ME!"

He then threw his left hand to the side, keeping up his charismatic actions.

"THOSE WITHOUT IT, THE INNOCENT HUMANS AND DEMONS WHO HATE THE PREJUDICE OF THIS WORLD... SEEK ME!"

The masked man Zero stood, arms outstretched, as if welcoming people sharing his thoughts to fight with him.

"I, ZERO, A KNIGHT OF JUSTICE, SHALL BRING MY JUDGEMENT DOWN ON THOSE WHO POISON THIS WORLD WITH A FALSE FARCE OF HOW TO ACHIEVE PEACE!"

...And Yukio watched in disbelief as the many screens along the room's wall went black.

The broadcast had ended.

* * *

In a secluded room of an unknown location that just had enough connection to run a link to the Vatican through a network of proxies, the mysterious figure of Zero stepped away from the white background placed against a wall. He strutted to an area behind the camera that had filmed him and was still pointed at the white backdrop, and let out a tired sigh, undoing a zip on the back of his one-piece suit. The fabric of the chest of the suit was pushed up as something long uncoiled itself from around his chest. Seconds later, a sleek, black tail, with a furry tuft atop, fell through the hole of the undone zip near Zero's lower back and swished back and forth, almost whip-like, in the new room to move granted to it after being cramped inside the costume.

A black demon cat, sitting at the camera, telepathically spoke in the ensuing silence, its own two tails wavering.

 _'I assume I timed the cut-off right? I've just never really played with a camera before.'_

"The timing was perfect, Kuro..." Zero answered in his distorted voice, gloved hand moving back to a switch near the back of his mask. A click in the locking mechanism sounded as the same hand moved to cup the mask by its purple visor, removing it gently from the once concealed face before the other hand pulled down the top of a black turtleneck stretched up over the face's nose.

Zero stood, bare-faced, in front of his partner, revealing a young, pale face with dark hair, clinging to his forehead from sweat inside the stuffy mask, and pointed ears. A smirking mouth with fang-like canine teeth opened to speak as clear, blue eyes shone with satisfaction and ambition.

"...The debut has been made, and now the true fight against the corrupt and discriminative current system of the Vatican and the Exorcists can begin." declared the unmasked Zero, an 18-year-old Rin Okumura.

He sighed, reminiscing over how far he had come to get where he was.

He had been sick of the leers of his classmates, the way they distanced themselves from him, Bon's sneering and insults, being stuck under watch and deprived of his privacy like a prisoner on parole – and by his own brother, no less!

After all, wasn't that all he had been back then...

...A prisoner on parole?

The only thing he could at all somewhat understand was Shiemi and Konekomaru being afraid of him, but it still made him feel lonely. He ended up isolated, and alone, abandoned by his so-called "friends" once they found out he was the spawn of Satan.

He couldn't stand it, and so he ran away, with Kuro his only companion, constantly witnessing the corruption of the Exorcists and their leaders as he and the feline demon fled on their way out of the country.

On the day he left Japan, the once happier, more cheerful and still-remotely attached-to-his-friends Rin Okumura, Rin Okumura the study-lazy idiot, had died.

And a new Rin Okumura, a vengeful one, an angry one, a more-committed-to-seriously-learning Rin Okumura, Rin Okumura the runaway half-demon genius fuelled by the experiences of his mistreatment, was born.

Zero was born.

He had learned to control his flames from repeating what little practice exercises he had learned at school from Shuro and making his own exercises, he hopped around in disguise identities from combat teacher to combat teacher to improve his skills whilst keeping himself hidden.

He returned to True Cross Academy when he came too close to people of the Vatican, leading him to catch wind of Operation Jacob's Ladder, and he was devastated by the mass slaughter of the demons, hearing the telepathic cries for help of forest guardians who screamed that they were simply guarding their land and race, cries only he could hear that fell deaf on the ears of the humans.

He realised, at that point, that an Exorcist should be helping the innocent – humans and demons alike – not exterminating all demons without hesitation.

The Exorcists and all of their Order were foolishly under the impression that to be a demon meant to be evil.

When actually, in reality, to be evil meant to be a demon – physically or metaphorically, no matter what you were.

He decided, he no longer had a desire to become an Exorcist when such corruption and prejudice existed, and he had experienced that firsthand.

' _So_ ,' Kuro snapped him out of his thoughts, _'You're going to finish dealing punishment to those who headed the help for Operation Jacob's Ladder, first?_ '

"Yeah." Rin answered, a determined look filling his eyes as he pulled out a location key he stole from one of the Knights of the True Cross members who had been guarding the Grigori members on the night he went to kill them, and a stealth-based magic circle prototype that he obtained from the Grigori's stock of secret Vatican research progress, "Paying them all a visit is in order, and I think I know who I should start with..."

* * *

After packing the last student progress papers away into the filing cabinet, finishing the rest of the work left in his office, Yukio Okumura let a tired breath escape his lips. He moved to shut the window that let the orange and pink brilliance of the starting afternoon sunset stream in, when he almost jumped at the sight of movement. A black, sharp silhouette slipped in through the window, right in front of him.

Yukio drew his one of his guns, pointing it straight at the intruder, until his focus wavered when the utter shock and disbelief of who was in his office slammed into his face.

"Zero!" he narrowed his eyes at the bat-like form of the masked man who had introduced himself on the live television broadcast earlier that day.

"Upper 2nd Class Exorcist – Yukio Okumura," Zero began in a deep, dramatic tone, "I assume you must have had some inkling that I would wish to speak with you?"

"I am one of the people who drove the Jacob's Ladder Operation's progress when the plan itself was actually executed; I had a feeling you would come for me, but I won't fall without a fight." Yukio replied sternly, keeping the gun trained on Zero until the latter strutted up, with all his asinine audacity, and grabbed the end of the barrel in one hand, simply lowering its aim to the smooth floor below their feet.

Then, the masked man did something the Okumura Exorcist did not expect; he stepped back and held his outstretched, black-clad hand.

"Join me, Okumura."

Under his mask, Rin eyed his younger twin brother carefully for any signs of hostile reaction. Instead, all he got out of the other was shocked and incoherent almost-spluttering.

He remembered the disdain Yukio showed towards him in the month before he disappeared; but maybe, just maybe, while Yukio wouldn't get along with Rin Okumura, he might fight alongside the enigmatic, faceless Zero… As long as he never saw under the mask…

"No."

Now it was Zero's turn to be shocked, "What?" he managed to level his voice to ask.

"I said – no. I'm not going to join you."

"But why!?" Zero raised his voice incredulously, "You were tricked into Operation Jacob's Ladder by the Pope's lies, only to have him stab you in the back as he then tried to use you as a sacrifice by spilling your blood to unlock the Gehenna Gate! You saw the cries for blood directed at your brother around True Cross Academy and in the Vatican simply for him having a demonic biological relation he couldn't help!

 _You_ now receive this persecution yourself as the once concealing of your powers, passing you off as an ordinary person, shattered when your blue flames awakened! Look at your teeth, and pointed ears! Everywhere you go, despite your climbing up the True Cross Order ranks, there are Exorcists who cry out for _your_ blood because they now recognise _you_ as a half-demon son of Satan! They throw you the difficult jobs as a way of relief on more of the full-human staff and a constant test of your loyalty! You should hate the prejudice you see more than anyone! So why do you refuse!?"

Rin grit his teeth as the bitter days of the Operation Jacob's Ladder incident resurfaced. Over time, he had managed to at least partially forgive his brother for the cold shouldering, and felt that the blinding of his brother from the hurt he was causing him was fuelled by the Knights of the True Cross Exorcists. He clearly remembered coming to the roof of True Cross Academy through a lesser known path, hiding in the shadows, and seeing his only other family, strapped to a cross and painfully bleeding onto the preparation for the Gehenna Gate as a sea of Arias chanted. Knowing there must be some way he could lessen Yukio's loss by adding himself to the mix, Rin tore his own demonic teeth into his arm and let the blood dribble onto an unseen side of the array, away from everyone else's view. In the end, though, all the combination of twins' blood did was awaken Yukio's demon powers and lead to the opening of the Gehenna Gate. It appeared that the only one who noticed the disappeared older Okumura twin was there and added his blood to the array was Pope Ernst, but he would never live to tell the tale of Rin's secret reappearance.

Rin had even stayed behind, hidden after all witnesses were absent to see Yukio possessed by Satan, and called out from hiding to encourage his brother to fight back from inside, as well as added his and his twin's blue flames together, soaring up next to him as they destroyed the Gehenna Gate, but overpowering Yukio's side of the flames so they temporarily blinded Yukio from seeing anyone closely alongside him.

After all those moments of disaster, he was sure that his brother would understand the corruption of the Vatican and join forces with his alter ego. Why was the result so unexpected!?

Or perhaps it was slightly expected? It _was_ Yukio he was talking about.

"An exorcist's job is to exorcise demons and serve the Knights of the True Cross and Vatican." Yukio said sternly, "I have committed to sticking to this side of the battle, and I thus am not interested in becoming the enemy of my fellow Exorcists by joining you. Even if I am treated like filth by some for being Satan's spawn, I don't care. It is a battle I entered long ago because someone important to me asked if I wanted to join him, and even now he's dead, I'm not going to abandon his legacy by changing my answer!"

A small smile graced Rin's face under the mask. 'I should have known. Of course he would keep telling himself that.'

"Very well." Zero sighed, standing back.

"What, you're not going to kill me?" Yukio prodded cautiously. Something seemed off about this enigma, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"No." the masked man in question replied, "I simply came because of the nature of your... interesting... situation, and you have declined my offer. However," Rin, under his helmet, put on a metaphorical mask of a warning tone to try throwing his brother off suspecting that Zero had any particular attachment or connection to Yukio, "In an answer to your particular question concerning killing you... I suggest, that for your sake, you don't drive me to the point of doing so...

Now, in that case, I bid you farewell, Okumura."

With a quick escape out the window too sudden for Yukio to catch, Zero was gone.

 **Man, this was long!**

 **If you guys couldn't tell by the reactions and roles of the Blue Exorcist characters corresponding with some of the roles and reactions of the Code Geass characters to Lelouch's debut as the original Zero, as well as Zero's talking himself, then to make it clear:**

 **Rin is Zero/Lelouch (debut speech a mix of Zero's debut speech and Black Knights debut speech in Code Geass episodes 4 and 8 respectively)**

 **Yukio is Suzaku (with the added part of having Diethard's "Zero? As in, nothing?" line)**

 **The Grigori are Clovis (the corrupt mass-slaughtering or mass-slaughter-helping detestable idiots in the high echelon who act as plan-fodder for Zero's rise)**

 **And Mephisto is Lloyd (to be honest, I'm seeing a sort of resemblance there…)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Hello, one and all! I'm ba~ack! (*Andrew-Scott-Moriarty voice* DID YOU MISS ME?)**

 **I was trying to keep up the thought that this fic would stay a dead one-off to never be continued so I wouldn't be juggling even more, but, guess what happened when I was trying to write other things? I GOT MORE IDEAS FOR THIS ONE! (Thanks a lot** _ **, reviewers**_ **! Your few but still existent written requests to continue the story despite my warning in the last chapter that I plan to let this lay a dead carcass of a oneshot for the Archive Vultures to pick at are like puppy-dog-eye pleas in my head – they really are, and they didn't help me trying to focus on keeping this fic a oneshot so I can focus on other stuff.) I did only turn to this fic with my ideas for it when I got stuck in a temporary ditch for writing a chapter for a collab fic I'm doing with my friend, though (in other words this fic is still a writer's outlet fic).**

 **The collab chapter is the fourth chapter of a** _ **Soul Eater**_ **fic we're almost done called** **"Haunted Memories" – a prequel to another** _ **Soul Eater**_ **collab fic we wrote back in 2013 called "Ghost of the Gallows". Basically, "Ghost of the Gallows" is a canon-backbone but still canon-divergent story about Maka, Black Star and their weapons going to Gallows Mansion – Death City's very own haunted house – for a test of fear, and running into Ghost!Death the Kid, the boy who haunts it. Read it if you like! "Haunted Memories" focuses, as a prequel, on Kid's last moments alive and his adjustment to and acceptance of becoming a ghost. We'd been trying for** _ **ages**_ **to get the first three chapters pre-written before we finally posted it last year, and the fourth chapter is the last one (the only one not pre-written). It's only a minor thing I needed to finish off before getting back to unclogging the writer's block on my other projects, so writing on this to interfere with it wasn't too much of a setback. If you want to check out "Ghost of the Gallows" and "Haunted Memories" (it hopefully won't be too long before I finish chapter 4 so the story can be finished), they're on my friend's account. Her pen name is NorthernMage.**

 **On the hand of this fic, BOY though, did I especially love writing the ending part of this fic's new chapter. Writing the new, different Zero!Rin in the end was a blast. He's been twisted after what happened with the running away, remember? So, while there will be times where he acts like the Rin we know, he will be keeping up some of the character of Lelouch's alter-ego's counterpart in others. He's going to be unlocking the genius that was held in by his pre-runaway (generally all of BE anime canon) naivety and apathy for study. He's had sh!t happen to him now, so he' s going into territory that would be OK for a counterpart to** _ **Code Geass**_ **Zero but OOC for canon Rin.**

 **Although I know there are people out there who prefer the** _ **Blue Exorcist**_ **manga over the anime, I still think that the animeverse-only plot, especially with its ending, opens up some good possibilities for me to make this setting and story work. Largely, the events that will be mentioned to transpire/have transpired in the world of Exorcists and Demons in this fic's time setting will generally revolve around the failure of Operation Jacob's Ladder (which was, of course, the anime climax complication. I'm taking anime-only canon, slightly modified only in the aspect of ways of character presence, and turning its importance up to 11…just not quite 11.). Sometimes it'll work, and sometimes it won't work, but I hope to think of stuff that'll work. I sort of thought about what might happen after the anime ending, and I thought that with a large operation like it, logically something so large and secretive not working will have social and political repercussions. I'm no political genius, but there are things I can somewhat to completely imagine happening afterwards with the driving plot of this fic. It's not going to be like what we're told of happening after the climax in the end of the anime where everything is happy and everything just needs to be rebuilt and BAM – everything is back to how it used to be.**

 **Although, you should be warned: This is sort of like an extra story that I'll continue (an outlet fic), simply posting concepts on it to let them out if I get them. Although some of them may sound like connected storyline, some of others may seem more like or entirely** _ **be**_ **more like just ideas following what might happen in the universe of this fic and may be set in certain time skips without fleshing out any of the events in the large allotted time skip. So it'll probably be less of a cohesive story and more like a collection of ideas. And thus, it'll also be updated sporadically (not that my other fics aren't, either, though.) So, don't expect anything too frequently.**

Chapter 2: The Story Is Continued (it really is!)

 **Normal POV**

In a secluded quarters in a secret base of operations, a certain black Cat Sidhe purred, his two tails waving relaxedly as a hand stroked gently down his back. With all the work he had been doing, running back and forth as a messenger to outside supporting forces whilst avoiding the eyes of the Exorcists, he needed a break…

…And boy, was it heaven. A bottle of the sake he loved sat on the table, ready to be poured into a dish for him later. For now it sat unopened, for Kuro was, at that moment, satisfied with simply sitting on Rin's lap and being petted to ease out the tension in his aching muscles.

The aforementioned half-demon, clad in his Zero costume with the mask sitting on the desk, had one gloved hand stroking Kuro and the other sorting through papers of recruits wishing to join his cause. Rin was surprised by the number of followers he, as Zero, had garnered in a world where it was usually either for the Exorcists or for the Demons, where people normally chose a side instead of really sitting on the fence. Many of the new recruits were half-demons or people with partial demonic blood working, or who had worked, for the Knights of the True Cross and decided to defect. It was most likely that they were sick of either being persecuted or hiding their true selves to avoid persecution, and took to him because he opposed such discrimination. The number of Exorcists, former or not, who were part demon surprised him; though they were not entirely common, they weren't as scarce Rin thought they would be. There were also demons, who wished the humans wouldn't senselessly kill them for what they were, and humans who were attached to demons, or even had lovers who were demons or of demonic blood, that also took their place under his banner of change.

Not that there were too many problems with the Exorcists, fully human or part-demon, entering his organisation. Although he had found many ways to pick out possible enemy infiltrators that were looking for him, and he was still greatly careful, he knew that many of them joined of their own will to honestly fight for his cause and he could make excellent infiltrators of his own out of the ones who were careful and were well-covering their demonic heritage, or simply change of loyalty over to Zero – if they were human with no demon blood to hide. He would have them stay with the Knights of the True Cross despite joining him, and report back information as spies, he planned.

Plus, with former Knights of the True Cross members that had knowledge on Exorcist weapons and specs he could determine the capabilities of the enemy Exorcists if, or when, they fight him and come up with useful counters to defend the fighters, especially demons, on his side that those attacks would normally target.

With Exorcists on his own side, he could also even fight fire with fire if he wanted.

' _Hey, Rin, what are we going to do about the group name? It doesn't have one yet. They're sort of just joining up with you like active members of a fan base at the moment.'_ Kuro asked through their telepathic communication.

"I'm not exactly sure." Rin answered coolly, "I've been thinking about it, but haven't come up with anything just yet."

It seemed Kuro was right about how the group was at the moment, now that he thought about it. They didn't have any official name, they had yet to publicly debut, they were simply joining up with the masked man they agreed with like a fan base of his, and gave their group a fan-appointed trending name unknown to outsiders to substitute for lack of a solid, proper one.

The pre-organisation, by its particular section of populous from Japan, where Zero started recruiting, had been unofficially christened "Oreitachi", a pun on "rei" – the native Japanese word for "zero" – and "oretachi" – an informal, generally masculine, Japanese word meaning "we" or "us".

It made sense to Rin how the nametag for his alter ego's group had come about – put together "us" and "zero" and you get the people with Zero, his soon-to-be-organisation's members, "we're with Zero," even if the "zero" word he used as his alias was "Zero", not "Rei". It was also not without mentioning that the "i" sound wasn't easy to hear on the end of the "rei" sound in "Oreitachi" when said at a conversational speed in Japanese, meaning saying "Oreitachi" could easily be heard as "oretachi" if the person wasn't listening out for whether the middle sound was "re" or "rei". Even people's individual pronunciation habits when talking sometimes made "re" sound like "rei" when they were just saying "oretachi", meaning that to an onlooker who just happened to be overhearing a conversation involving Oreitachi and successfully noticed the slightly different pronunciation, they might still brush it off as the unsuspicious "oretachi" because of differences in individual speaking habits. In Japanese, at least, it was a way for Zero's followers to communicate to each other about their group without attracting much attention or getting easily caught onto when overheard talking by outsiders.

Rin chuckled.

"Despite its popularity and practicality, I'm not going officially for _Oreitachi_."

Kuro meowed in amused agreement.

' _Yeah, it's a bit too cheesy for an official debut.'_

"Besides," the half-breed boy added, " _Oreitachi_ is a good undercover name for the Japanese side to use, even if it's known by that name to all nationalities that have decided to gather under me but can only be used when speaking Japanese. I suppose there would be some times in other languages where it could be used, like if slipping into a conversation about multilingual translation, for example, but that would still be an uncommon chance. Quite a number of recruits and connections are stationed in Japan that could still go using this as the group codename, but they wouldn't be able to if I choose it as the group's official name when I debut it. The whole world would know the name, and a good cover would be wasted. Anyway, I'll probably have an official group name by tomorrow or the day after."

Giving the black-furred feline demon a scratch under the chin, the Okumura boy grinned.

"Do you want to open the sake, now?"

Kuro's eyes twinkled with excited delight.

' _Oh, yes please!'_

"Just don't try to have too much and get drunk, okay?" Rin warned with a roll of his eyes as he opened the bottle and filled a small steel dish to a quarter full with the alcoholic rice beverage. The two-tailed cat grinned excitedly and began to lap it up.

' _I won't!~'_

Turning to back to the recruit list, Rin flipped through the papers until a face and name on one of the submissions caught his gaze, and his eyes widened in disbelief.

'…Is that…!? Why's _she_ wanting to come in here!?'

He had quite a number of recruits who came to him from leaving the Knights of the True Cross because they saw their demons as true friends and comrades instead of weapons or servants, but _her_ defecting from the Exorcists!?

* * *

The doors and hallways around her seemed to go on forever down the empty hallway as she made her way to her teacher's office, her mind buzzing with thoughts. When she finally reached the right brown, wooden door, she was about to knock, but paused as shouting reached her ears from behind it. She flinched at the volume and anger of the rant.

"I _know_ that things are complicating! Do you honestly believe I am unaware of the situation!? Tamers are the hardest to find and one of the most highly valued of all the Exorcist Meisters, and yet we're losing an alarming number of them! Something needs to be done and I know that fairly well! _Yes_ , I know Zero must have something to do with this. It's been only three weeks since he showed up; I doubt it's a coincidence! I will _try_ to do something about it, with all due respect, when I have the _time_! It's alright; you know my class has two tamers, though they're still in-training Exwires, so I know we've still got a number to graduate. Besides, can't you get someone higher up to inspect this situation instead of me? Why are you consulting a teacher who has to balance going on missions and marking assessment!?"

A tired sigh sounded as the voice calmed down.

"I do apologize for the outburst, Shura; I've just had a lot on my plate lately. Listen, if you have anything else you want to talk about when I'm not busy, feel free to call. Goodbye."

She tensed up as footsteps sounded, and the door opened, revealing a familiar face.

"Yuki-chan." She greeted, forcing a smile.

"Good afternoon, Shiemi." Yukio smiled back tiredly, "You must have heard me before; I'm sorry if it startled you. I've just been tired and Shura trying to shove one more thing in my face has put me past cracking point, I believe."

"Oh, is that so? Well, I hope I'm not too much of a bother…" Shiemi mused aloud, "I'm here for the results of my Anti-Demon Pharmaceuticals extension test."

"Ah yes," her friend and teacher smiled, "I was expecting you. Come sit down inside."

The blonde, kimono-clad Exwire shuffled into the room and sat down in a pine-green armchair positioned opposite her teacher's brown, oak work desk that was piled with folders and neat stacks of paper. She gazed around at all the plain, brown, wooden walls and floor, then to the bookshelves on either wall filled with assortments of tomes on topics from old legends to medical textbooks to demonology. Yukio picked up a folder and flicked through its starch-coloured contents until he found the stapled group of papers he was looking for. Holding it out to her, the Moriyama girl accepted it from him, recognising it as her extension test. She couldn't put up any resistance to the grin that surfaced on her face as she saw the big, circled number of _99_ in the top right hand corner in red pen.

"Well done." He congratulated her, "You've done so well, learning to use the plants' proper names when answering the tests while saving your own appointed names to refer to them only casually. Not to mention, I'm very glad that you've gone as far as taking an above level subject content extension and still passed the challenge with flying colours! The only question you struggled on was one that was written like a trick question. You should have no problem at all graduating the cram school with a Doctor Meister."

A pink hue rose a little to Shiemi's cheeks at the praise, but her mind began to wander to a topic of personal dilemma.

Could she leave Yukio?

After all, she had sent in an application to join Zero's forces.

She felt it was a decision she had to make herself. As a Tamer first and foremost to Doctor, she cared greatly for her summon, her baby Greenman, Nii. After Operation Jacob's Ladder, she wasn't so sure about Nii's safety though; after all, even though Nii was her summon, the summon of an Exorcist (or at least training Exorcist), a Greenman was still a demon. All summons were Demons. The aim of Operation Jacob's Ladder was to exterminate all demons and the whole of Gehenna. It may have miserably failed, but the backlash towards Tamers' feelings about their demons' safety wasn't minor. There were a number of Tamers who were angry at the Vatican for keeping such a plan of mass demon slaughter secret, and worried that another attempt or similar plan, that would involve the harming of their demon summons who were their bonded comrades, was being hidden and would be executed sometime in the future. Many Tamers had lost a portion of their trust in the Exorcist authorities, and it had become an eye-opener. As such, with Zero's debut and voicing of his anti-demon persecution ideals as the last catalyst, it attributed to the alarming number of Tamers that were leaving the Knights of the True Cross, either simply retiring from Exorcist posts to live a normal life with an ordinary job that kept them uninvolved, joining Zero's cause (allegedly) or just disappearing off the face of the earth.

Shiemi was a member of the second type. At least, she was _trying._ She didn't know if she had gotten in yet. Operation Jacob's Ladder may have torn apart a great deal of trust and bonds, but it also forged new ones. Shiemi had been suggested joining Zero's group by her friend and only fellow tamer in her class, Izumo Kamiki, who she had been having a shaky friendship with ever since she first made friends with her. Izumo had been having a decision on her mind the week before. When Shiemi asked, the purple-haired Tamer begrudgingly told her about the concerns she was having over the safety of her two Byakko summons that she considered to be like brothers to her. Both Tamers revealed their lost trust in the Vatican and Izumo voiced that she was thinking of joining Zero, inviting Shiemi to join as well. The Greenman Tamer decided to take the invitation, agreeing with Zero's philosophy that the unfair slaughter of demons disregarding if they had a passive stance towards humans needed to be stopped, especially when they thought about the persecution brought down on Rin. The pair couldn't help but wonder what became of their former classmate after he ran away.

After they made their decision together, and closely agreeing on the same principle, the two girls became much closer with a smooth-going friendship instead of a shaky one. Shiemi had finally made a female friend she could really trust and Izumo had some of the cold ice around her heart melted.

A dilemma still remained for Shiemi, however, concerning the fact that Yukio's stance towards Zero was unknown to her.

Yukio was her friend, after all, and she didn't want to split that apart because he might be Zero's enemy and by joining the masked enigma she was making him her enemy.

She hoped Yukio's opinion of Zero was a positive one. Then, maybe he wouldn't hate her if he found out she was trying to join the man who had killed the Grigori.

She had decided that that afternoon, as she sat in his office, she would somehow neutrally slip the topic into the conversation and get his answer without accidentally making him suspicious of her for any reason. It was a challenge, she wasn't a master of words, but she had to find out what he thought.

"I assume you're quite proud. Do you want me to go over that one tricky question?" his asking snapped her out of her mental recollection.

Snatching a half-finished cup of tea off his desk, Yukio sat down himself while waiting for Shiemi to answer. Having been put down and left idle so the young Exorcist could have his earlier phone conversation with Shura, it had most likely cooled by that point, but he didn't care. He sipped at it regardless.

"Oh, no; I'm fine. I'm okay with it." The blonde Exwire answered with a smile, which then slipped into a frown as she glanced to the stacks of documents on his desk, "You're work really is piling up."

The bespectacled boy nodded, taking another sip of his cold tea, "Things _have_ been getting rather hectic around here in the past weeks. As you would've heard me… _talking_ …to Shura about, the Knights of the True Cross qualified ranks are losing a quite a number of Tamers, alongside a portion of other Exorcist Meisters."

Shiemi hummed in agreement, putting a down tone in her voice, "Yes, ever since Zero showed up, startling changes have initiated…"

"Luckily I have a good class out of you and your peers: Two Tamers, you and Izumo, out of one class. Normally we only get one, sometimes even none in a class. So your graduation into qualified Exorcists will add more to our numbers."

The grip of her hands, on the test paper, tightened. She put it down as she thought with some rising guilt.

'Yes. And both of those two tamers, in that one class, the good class, have decided to join Zero instead of staying loyal to the Exorcists.'

Looking back up from the paper, she noticed that Yukio as frowning as well.

"Zero will soon learn that the Exorcists are harder to survive making enemies of than he originally thought." He said seriously, gritting his teeth, "He hasn't just murdered the Grigori now. In the time since he debuted, some more of the high-ranking officers in the Vatican and Knights of the True Cross have also died. Four were poisoned in a single event, and three others had either bullets through their skulls or their throats slit. However, true to his explained intentions of the murder threat following the Grigori's deaths, they are all high-ranking officers that were involved in Operation Jacob's Ladder. One perpetrator was caught for committing the shot wounds, and subsequently sentenced to execution for the killing of well-ranked officials, but they were undoubtedly sent by Zero. Right now, the whole organisation is staying sharp, and Zero will be caught sooner or later. However, there is still nothing explaining how he can get his grunts and weapons in, but when we find out…"

"He seems like a shadow." She muttered, "He gets in and out undetected while working off his agenda. I imagine you've been tired over trying to sort out what he's doing. He hasn't come after you yet, has he? After all, you were tricked into working on the final phase of Operation Jacob's Ladder…"

"He did."

Shiemi's incredulous yet worried gaze bolted aligned to Yukio's.

Noticing her shocked expression, Yukio continued.

"It was on the day he debuted. In the afternoon, he slipped here into my office somehow undetected."

"And he didn't do anything to you?" she whispered, worriedly.

He replied stiffly.

"He didn't harm me. He asked me to join him."

The Moriyama girl's shock only increased.

'Zero asked Yuki-chan to join him!? Does that mean Yuki is now on the side of Zero and is okay with him!?'

"Don't worry," he quickly answered, _only he didn't know that she didn't need to worry, just react in internal disappointment instead_ , "I was taken aback, but straight afterwards I immediately declined his offer. It seemed he knew of my renown as the twin brother to Satan's disappeared, prominent, flame-inheriting half-breed son, not to mention that I've become a talk of negative kind because I've awakened my own demon side, and my joining the Operation was because I was tricked and lied to. He thought, with my situation, I would flock to his side so easily, but I'm in the Knights of the True Cross because my adopted father asked if I wanted to join him in the fight against evil, and backing out would be disrespecting his memory."

"Even if the way ahead lies through a river of mud?" Shiemi muttered, "You'll be continuously pushed down and persecuted by others because of your heritage. You only met major promotion due to your personal stopping of Operation Jacob's Ladder; the Knights of the True Cross even only awarded it _reluctantly_ , considering your awakened demonic blood."

"I know you must be worried that I was tempted to join Zero, but yes, I will persevere and let the high ranking Exorcists earn my respect. Said respect will come in the long term, but I will always be here to save this world from the demons; Zero's ideals seem too…I can't think of the right word…too sugar-coated? Basically, from the way he speaks, he acts as if humans and demons could ever get along, and goes around preaching protection of the weak. The world doesn't work like that, though. The Exorcists protect the weak by stopping evil, meaning the majority of demons. I will admit some demons and creatures are not all diabolic, but it doesn't sway the fact that demons are known for being evil, and the vast majority of them follow this designation of nature. Zero's ideals seem too heroic, that he's ignoring some of the problems going on in this world to give his principles a chance at apparent practicality. Therefore, with ambitions as holed as they are, he will not prevail and we will defeat him. Justice is a very controversial grey area; there are many different opinions on the definitions of justice. He is likely just throwing the word around to cover up some intentions of vengeance."

"Okay." Shiemi nodded, adding to herself, 'Wait, he could have really joined with Zero and is only saying this to throw me off thinking he actually became Zero's ally, because he doesn't know I'm sided with Zero too and therefore assumes that telling me the truth would break his cover. Although, I know he feels very strong loyalty for the Knights of the True Cross, so there's a chance he really isn't siding with Zero, so if I revealed that I turned to Zero's side in order to find out if Yukio truly did too and he really didn't, then that would be breaking _my_ cover! Ah, I didn't get much of a definite answer for my question out of this conversation at all!'

"I suppose we should stop talking about such grim and debatable news." Yukio sighed, pinching his brow. "You've looked at your exam results, so is there anything else I can do for you?"

"No." she replied, putting on a friendly smile, "Nothing at all." Getting up out of the chair, she moved to exit and opened the door, "Well, I have to be back going home now! You should lock up here before it gets too late, too. See you, Yuki-chan!"

Yukio waved goodbye as his student left the room and closed the door, not knowing the whole situation with Zero had wedged a rift in between their personal ideals.

* * *

Four days had passed since the discussion with Yukio, and the midday weekend sun blazed over True Cross City, brightly illuminating the cloud-dotted expanse of blue. The pace of Shiemi's steps increased over time as the quickly strode her way through the gaps between the buildings, and street crowds, glancing every now and then at the single text message from her turned-much-closer friend.

 _I was thinking of a best friends' day out today since it's Sunday. Meet me at a café called Chupa Cabra's. Nice big sign in flashy, pink Katakana with green love hearts – can't miss it. The two main waitresses may be a bit nosy sometimes, but the mochas and frappes are great there. Also, make sure it's just you. We don't want the boys and their big heads ruining it for us._

 _Izumo._

The address of the café was provided underneath the rest of the message, and the Greenman Tamer was left wondering why her friend would pick their meetup to be a place near the outer regions of the city, as she had spent her time on the public bus in musing, before getting off at the nearest stop and trying to find her final destination.

Then, there was also the case of Izumo asking her to be there by herself, just not worded in the typical, suspicious, cliché "and come alone." She gave a reason for not wanting the boys in their class to spoil a best friends' outing, but it topped off the further out meeting place as a feeling that it was a sensitive-topic rendezvous hidden under the guise of a normal café meetup.

The blonde teen came to a stop at a shop on a somewhat busy but not totally abandoned street – less enough people to not catch too much passer-by attention but not deserted enough to look obviously suspicious. Sure enough, she was able to match up the name on the street sign to the street name in the café address, and a somewhat small building coloured a light, baby pink, with the darker hot pink name "Chupa Cabra's" across the top, was positioned two buildings from the end corner.

Shiemi opened the glass-paned door with a wooden frame the same colour as the exterior (they sure loved their pink, even if the lighter, paler colour of the outside was alright and didn't make the business look obnoxious in any really severe way; in fact, the establishment still looked rather humble despite its colour scheme). A small tinkling sounded as a bell attached to the top of the door rang, signifying the staff of the entrance of another customer into the vicinity. The blonde Exwire found her purple-haired friend in one, simple glance, sitting at a table against the side wall, a small distance away from some of the smaller number of other occupants. She waved as Shiemi made her way over and sat down at the table as well.

"So, you could make it." Izumo sighed in relief, as if she was ready to tell her fellow Tamer something very important. She handed her the menu as a yellow-clad waitress with long, brown hair tied back in a bun came to ask for their orders. The two Exwires ordered and shared the pay. With a small wait for an iced chocolate for Izumo and a cookies and cream frappe for Shiemi, as well as a slice of orange cake each (she was originally thinking of going for a mocha, as she still liked it even though she wasn't big on coffee, and thought the caffeine might keep her going later in the day after all that walking, but then decided a chilled frappe would feel better in the heat). As the two began to eat, Shiemi posed the first question that came to mind, rather lowly.

"So, why exactly are we here?"

Izumo smirked, "I've got something great to show you." Her face became slightly more serious, but also shining a bit with hope and excitement. She pulled out her phone, and held it out for only the two of them to see, "I received this message last night."

 _Dear Miss Kamiki,_

 _We have considered your application and decided you can indeed fill in our free spot for work experience while our busier times are leaving us somewhat short-staffed on cashiers/waitresses this week. We have fortnightly staff collaboration with other cafes and a different café hosts it each time. The next one is tomorrow, if you can make it at such short notice, at the café Chupa Cabra's near the outer parts of the city. I do apologise if it is inconvenient in any way. Also, if you have any other friends looking for work experience, it would be helpful to bring them along or promote the idea to them as we need more than one extra pair of hands. The address to the Hosting Café and collaboration staff meeting time details are provided below. Have a nice day._

 _Café Markour_

Underneath was the address to Chupa Cabra's and a meeting time just after noon.

"So you got into work experience? Why didn't you just say so in the text?" Shiemi asked in confusion, before lowering her voice, "Or is it something else instead?"

"The latter, most likely." The pigtailed girl replied, taking a slurp of her iced chocolate and lowering her voice as well, "Café Markour is a café I sometimes visit in the part of town closest to outside the school campus, but I know their service phone number and they leave their service number at the end of their messages. This one didn't. Besides I didn't sign up for any job experience. But it still mentioned an application. I do know what I _did_ send in an application for."

The Exorcist Supply Shop Owner's daughter almost let a gasp escape her, but caught herself before she could catch the attention of any of the café's other patrons.

"So, then, it's from him."

"Or one of his friends." the Byakko Tamer added, refraining from using the word "associates" in order to avoid sounding like she was talking about something a bit more formal or sensitive, instead making it sound like she was just having a conversation about school friend issues to anyone who might overhear.

"So, what do we do?" the Greenman Tamer said in uncertainty, "Do we ask about the work experience job?"

"I think so." The other answered, starting to talk at a normal volume and thus immersing herself more in the "work experience or part-time job" talking code, "It mentioned a staff collaboration meeting, and to bring along any friends who are looking for work experience. I assume your contact details must have gotten cut off your cover letter by accident so they couldn't reach you. I did put down a bottom note on mine that you were applying as well, so they must have been using me to get through to you as well."

She was saying that Shiemi must have had her contact details cut off or missing from her application to join Zero's forces, so they found out how to contact her through Izumo when they found hers.

One change to a light-hearted, much idler conversation involving happily laughing and complaining about the crazy goings-on in their class, to draw suspicion away, lead to them finishing their drinks and cake. The waitress from earlier came and collected their glasses and plates as they stood up and headed to the counter. Izumo looked to the woman at the counter, a woman with chin-length short brown hair in a purple collarless shirt and dark navy skirt, and brought up the reason they had come here, in the code that the text message used.

"Hello, we're here for the staff meeting. We applied for work experience at another café and they said to come introduce ourselves at the next collaboration meeting and make a final decision." She explained.

"Ah, of course!" the young lady said, opening a gate in the counter and taking them to a door behind it labelled with a steel nameplate reading "Staff Room". "I apologise if it was difficult for you to make it. A different café hosts the meeting each time, and it's our turn."

"That's okay. We already knew that." Izumo nodded as the young lady led them into the Staff Room.

"This way, please." The staff lady said as she led them into a small room. It looked like a room for workers at the back of a typical small café or even fast food restaurant – there wasn't much there except for a table with chairs to sit at while taking breaks from working. It didn't look like the right size for an important meeting place, if the "inter-café collaboration staff meeting" was a secret code name for a meeting of applicants for Zero's forces, considering the rest of the "café work experience" message seemed to be a double meaning – that was probably meant to not immediately reveal any connections to joining Zero should someone bug her phone or monitor any of her sent and incoming messages.

However, it seemed that there was another layer of significance to teenagers' current situation, as the service lady closed and locked the door behind them mere moments after they entered.

"What's going on?" Shiemi looked around worriedly.

"Is there some meaning to this!?" Izumo asked, anger rising up in her at thought that they may have been tricked.

The brunette café worker held her hand up in pardon, trying to quiet the two. She fished a ring of keys out of her pocket, and held up a specific key. Its smooth, silver surface glinted in the light of the room. They both eyed the key with curiosity. Was it a location key?

Their question was answered when the woman simply fitted the key into the door they had just entered and twisted it into the unlocked position. As she opened the door, the two Exwires peered out.

Indeed, it was a location key, for the café counter area outside the staff room was gone. Dim light hit their eyes as a small, plain, grey room with one hanging light and a wooden table with four seats sat beyond the doorway, a single door at the other end, further away from them, that was no doubt locked. The brunette Chupa Cabra's employee ushered them into the room and shut what was once the Staff Room door behind her. Trying to keep her in place to ask questions, the pair rushed at her to open the closer door behind them, the door they had come through, back up, but another Location Key had already been used, for all that their gazes met was an empty broom closet.

They turned back to the other door, the one at the far end of the room, the front of the room, as the sound of footsteps began to echo. The lock was undone with a quiet _click_ and in stepped a sharp figure that made their jaws drop.

The black, gold-trimmed cape, dark purple one-piece suit and visored, pointy mask of Zero were all over the news, pictures of him from his debut broadcast.

Now, the two girls were seeing the masked man himself in person.

He strolled into the room with a brisk, smooth pacing, shoulders held straight out under his cape, seriousness yet also confidence practically radiating off of his form. His figure was not taller by much, but with his mysterious and intimidating air, it felt as if he might as well have towered over them like a giant.

A man with his face hidden by parts of his hat, in a peculiar, dark uniform that they did not recognise stood by Zero's side, a pistol by his hip – a bodyguard, as was blatantly obvious…But why only one?

"Good day to you, girls. I see you got my message, Izumo Kamiki. Miss Moriyama here left out her temporary contact number in her application." The modified, echoed voice of the enigma came from behind the mask, "I am here to interrogate you."

"Interrogate us?" Izumo managed to get out of her mouth while still shocked about being within the presence of Zero himself.

"Is it because we're near-graduating Exorcists?" Shiemi added onto her friend's question, also both incredulous and also nervous.

"Indeed." Zero replied. Under his mask, Rin let out a small grin at the pair before him. He remembered the shock of checking over the files and finding Shiemi's and Izumo's applications right next to each other. He didn't know why Shiemi of all people would leave the Exorcists of her own out-of-the-blue choice; he supposed Izumo probably inspired or encouraged her to do it. Funny, considering the last time he saw them, Izumo was bossing an oblivious Shiemi around like her servant for a while, then they became equals on shaky ground. Their friendship must really have solidified in the two and half years since.

'Well, if it isn't Shiemi and Eyebrows.'

Shiemi had only been afraid of him because of his power after she found out about his secret and lack of control over his flames like everyone else did. Beyond that, she still liked him as a person. Rin supposed that she might have overcome that fact while he was gone and warmed up to him again, remembering him more for the person he was. She was that type of girl in the way she thought about other people. Izumo, on the other hand, had been really the first one in the class ( _only_ one in the class, except maybe Shiemi forgetting she was really just afraid of his lack of control; she didn't discriminate against him or hate him) to accept him as a son of Satan. That most likely had to do with the fact that, even at the start, she didn't really give a toss about the whole situation at all.

'Now, I can't let any feelings I've left behind resurface after all this time. They'll get in the way.'

"Why would you look over the interrogations of two schoolgirls yourself?" Izumo asked bravely. _Always the assertive one_.

"I look over _all_ of the applicant interrogations that need to be further investigated. Although plenty of joining members can be let in without trouble, people of particular backgrounds coming in may need to be looked into for risk of infiltrators. Do not worry, I'm not generally discriminating in saying only certain people can join me; demons, humans, demon and human mixes, Exorcists, miscellaneous others, all are welcome here. However, I still need to be wary of looking for spies that may come in. It may seem somewhat self-contradictory, but in the end most to all of the applicants looked into are honest people who genuinely wish to join this side, and make it into our numbers. I have only found six infiltrators so far out of many applicants, and I was able to modify forms of contact to reaching me to get around them spouting how they got an application onto my list to enemy authorities.

I have looked over your applications and what you have written, but remind me, how did you come across the way to contact me? I have had some people simply lazing around on the internet looking to support Zero using ambiguous code words and blatant forum comments, but I never made contact with you following any online notice. Most likely because you're Exorcists-in-training and so you're not just going to spout your opinions for others to see, even if anonymously."

"I had my two Byakko summons look around. They followed one of your people and spotted the contact details." The Kamiki girl explained.

"Why do you wish to join my forces?"

"I'm sure you've heard the news of the Knights of the True Cross losing an alarming number of Tamers after your debut acted as a final trigger for them, regardless of if they joined you or simply left to be completely uninvolved in anything." She said, beginning to explain seriously, "We are two of those. We are still Exwires, on an extended training course after reparations of the damage done to the school in Operation Jacob's Ladder halted classes for a while. Regardless, we lost a lot of trust in the Vatican like the others after the Operation came to light. After all, the higher-ups cannot just pull such a massive plan into the light out of top secrecy and have it fail without repercussions – especially those affecting the trust coming from the lower and training ranks of Exorcists.

We are very close to our demon summons; we do not trust in the high officers of the Exorcists anymore concerning the safety of our summons, and agree with your ideals on avoiding slaying all demons blindly for the reason of simply being demons."

"We've also witnessed persecution of that similar nature before." Shiemi added boldly, gaining confidence, "We had a classmate, once, named Rin Okumura."

Beneath the black metal covering his face, Rin paused in his shock at the blonde Tamer's explanation, poised to listen to what she thought of him.

Shiemi felt some more of her nervousness ebb away, but was saddened slightly as Zero suddenly piped in.

"Ah, yes. A friend of Rin Okumura? There is little of anyone around the vicinity of the 'Exorcists and Demons' side of Japan who hasn't heard of Satan's half-breed son."

"Indeed." She nodded at that, "He was my friend. He tried so hard to make friends with everyone, and he made friends with me. Back when it was revealed to us that he was half-demon and Satan's son, everyone started to hate him, discriminate him or reject him. I wished I could have helped him, but I was scared of his abilities. I was too scared of his lack of control that he had over his flames at the time, thinking that I would get burned. I was paralysed with dilemma, trying to decide whether or not to step in and help him, but that dilemma was caused mostly because I also secretly became scared of everyone else, and what they would do to me, making an enemy out of me if I directly sided with Satan's son. With them not knowing how I felt, everyone took the chance to push me back or 'shield me' while I was not acting and still too indecisive to stop them, telling me I should get out because ' a demon like him' would 'come after a weakling like me'."

She gripped her knees and grit her teeth, the constant realisation of what she was saying engraving itself in her mind. She had to live up to those words – she couldn't make them lies. She looked Zero straight in the face, or rather, the visor of his mask. Her voice suddenly became filled with hard-set determination, and within his cloth-and-mask cocoon of identity-protection, Rin couldn't help but be finally and truly hit by the fact that things had changed in his two-and-a-half year absence. The fifteen-year-old Shiemi Moriyama was more sensitive and socially weak, as well as easily scared. She would never take the initiative when with other people, always waiting for someone else to take the first step first. However, the eighteen-year-old Shiemi Moriyama stood in front of him with a brave front, enough so to look his notoriously intimidating alter-ego straight down, if only for a short period of time before she would back down – most people did, after all. She had an impression of having matured, coming to boldly accept her personal faults and admit that she could be serious about trying to grow her own strength.

"In retrospect, I am ashamed of myself. I was a coward; I would seldom, if never, take a first step on my own without encouragement – even after my legs had been cured of a demon Temptaint that once prevented me from walking. Because of my oversensitivity and cowardice, my friend was given too many blows to his self-esteem for one person to handle; because I was afraid of others, and even afraid of him. Then he ran away, and I don't know what ever became of him. I lost a friend because I couldn't take a risk.

Some people from other classes would even look at me regardless of whether or not I voiced my opinion on Rin, and tried to speak behind my back. They only saw me as 'moral and medical support'. They never saw me as one to defend myself – a Doctor, and a Tamer who could only use her summon for Doctor purposes, would be my only usefulness across my Meisters. Like many medical Exorcists, even my teacher Yukio was a Doctor combined with an offense Meister – Dragoon; he was capable in combat, yet I just sat there doing nothing better than cheering, putting up temporary barriers and helping the Exorcists, when the fights were finishing or already ended, in licking their wounds. It is time I start losing the indecisiveness, stand up for my found beliefs and get stronger to defend them; and if I have to defect from the place and people I was usually so complacent with to make a strong decision for myself, then so be it."

Izumo turned to her usually more timid friend, astounded at the boldness she was showing.

"Shiemi… That resolve has been long building up, hasn't it?"

Shiemi sighed, and both girls looked straight at Zero as a peculiar sound, peculiar for someone like what little way Zero had publicly portrayed himself so far, made itself known throughout the room. It sounded, at first, like scoffing, but as the masked head lowered onto its hands, and the shoulders began to shake, the auditory response to Shiemi's speech hit with more clarity.

It was laughter.

Zero was _laughing_.

The smaller chuckles, as Zero then threw his head back, quickly turned to all-out, mad, amused laughter, ringing throughout the room and taking the girls, and even the stoic bodyguard whose presence had almost been forgotten, aback like the sounding of a large church bell in close proximity.

Not as quickly as it started, but still somewhat quickly, it stopped. A surprised yet pleased _smile_ spread itself on the face of their ex-classmate underneath the infamous mask as he made a decision of his own.

"Interesting change in resolve… Very well! You have proven yourselves honest to this side! However, you are still not graduated Exorcists, correct? I would like for you to stay at True Cross Academy for now. I'm sure you would like to finish some education. When you learn more to the point where you become qualified Exorcists, then your further honed skills shall be of even more use to you in our ranks, and if the Knights of the True Cross ever try to directly pull an offensive advance on us in the future, fighting fire with fire could be helpful, so to speak. Would you, perhaps, be alright with acting as insiders of our own and sharing any important information the Exorcists may slip to you so we can keep steps ahead?"

"Sure. That's fine with me. I'm not really that keen on the people in my class, anyway." Izumo replied.

"Also, once you're done looking around, I'm having a meeting for new recruits in half an hour. As you know of the many Tamers who've left the Knights of the True Cross, you can probably deduce that quite a number have joined me. We'll be having an important skill-showing where the joined Tamers will be required to show and explain their summons. Since you are both Tamers, make sure you're there."

Zero stood up and unlocked the door, ushering them down a long, twisting path until they reached a certain brick in the tunnel. He pushed it back with ease and fitted in a location key, transporting them into a room with lockers and the unfamiliar uniforms of the same appearance to the one worn by the bodyguard. Seeing the notion to find a new uniform on the unused pile, they found ones in their sizes and headed to a branch-off changing room for females. The attires were primarily black, with some dark grey sections, and a decorative strap hanging over one shoulder, all bordered with a light grey colour that was almost white. Women's boots were shin-high, and went with either of two bottom clothes. The two girls looked at the uniforms they were putting on. They looked rather cool, but they knew that the moment they completely fitted them on, it was their final step of properly becoming traitors to the Knights of the True Cross, traitors to everything they once knew. After this, there was no turning back. Yet, somehow, it also felt refreshing at the spot of newness in their lives.

In the end, the pair came out in their new uniforms whilst surprisingly finding Zero still patiently waiting for them. They assumed he would have left them a note because he would have had something more important to do after the interrogation; but apparently not.

Izumo was clad in the black and grey, white-trimmed long sleeve top with a pair of matching narrow, mid-thigh shorts that were lined with white on the outer sides. Shiemi, on the other hand, went for the top with a straight skirt reaching down to almost her knees. Zero opened the door to the locker and changing room, ushering them into a large, steel-lined, underground warehouse abuzz with black-clad people and even humanoid to less humanoid demons, all wearing some form of clothing (if the uniform didn't fit their body shape) carrying the semblance of the same absence of colour. Dramatically flinging out a dark glove-clad hand, Zero introduced the young ladies to the new, secret world they had joined.

"Izumo Kamiki and Shiemi Moriyama, I welcome you to the undercover-designated and casually named _Oreitachi_ , soon to be known to the world as the Order of the Black Knights!"

 **I thought I would keep the _Code Geass_ names for more than just Zero, so the Black Knights are staying the Black Knights no matter what universe! (Also, while in CG it was an irony and a mockery of the Knights in the Britannian Military, here it can be like ZeRin giving one big "Screw You!" to the Knights of the True Cross!)**

 **No, Yukio is not going to be as stupidly naive as Suzaku and think that he can change the Knights of the True Cross's somewhat unjust feelings from the inside; primarily becaus _e_ Yukio goes _with_ their beliefs (although he does know not all demons are bad, he still doesn't see any reason to change the system of the Exorcists - his father brought him up in it, remember? That system is what he's known for years). He was simply saying that he'll just prove his loyalty to the other Exorcists so he can work without being persecuted - he is not an idiot; he knows it'll take quite some time for that to even happen, with all sorts of trust issues for everyone coming in after the end of Jacob's Ladder, but he's still willing to try. He just doesn't care if the stopping of the persecution at him comes now or comes later.**

 **I was originally going to have just Shiemi as a sort of Kallen counterpart (since I ship RinxShiemi), but I decided that Izumo was more of a Kallen-ish girl (especially considering her closeness to her Byakko might just leave her to defect for someone she agrees with more than the Vatican and the Knights of the True Cross). But, I still thought Shiemi seemed to stay the same back-support at the end of the anime that she was at the start, so I thought that some character maturing for her was in order. She's gone through two and a half more years of cram school, after all (she has to grow as a character in that time!) in other words, we'll probably seeing some kickass!Shiemi in the future. So including both girls, I thought that the rift between their building friendship could close differently by them joining Zero together! Twice the fun! But Izumo's gone for the girl's Black Knight uniform with shorts (like Kallen) while Shiemi went for the one with the skirt (that Inoue wears; even though she's no counterpart to Inoue or anything. The skirt just suits her better).**

 **Pokelolmc...out! (Until next time!)**

 **(On an unrelated note, I got the Durarara! complete season 1 DVD set for Christmas like six months after I watched the show and I was just inspired into thinking _what if Mephisto met Izaya_? They're both observing players who set up games, or just watch whatever comes up. They both love running around as if their local anime setting is their playground, and they both "love humans" - blame the AnE wiki for telling me Mephisto loves humans, "kind of like Izaya does..." was my own thinking, but it makes sense since Mephisto loves Assiah as a place for him to watch and experiment. Plus, both characters are voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya! Holy crap Mephisto meeting Izaya needs to happen!)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Here we are! Man, it's been..two years!**

 **I'm so sorry that this chapter is shorter than the previous ones and doesn't really concern the events with the already established main characters. I actually recorded the characters' trains of thought spoken aloud on my iPod when I had the idea for this, so my lines were rather short and I had trouble filling them in with more description (it's usually easier for me to add more descriptive "meat" to the bones of what I've got if I straight up write it out from my head, but then it's harder to get the initial ideas out).**

 **On another funny side note, I felt that Mephisto's train of thought needed something to lead into it, so I wrote the introduction afterwards. It's been a while since I watched a whole lot of** _ **Blue Exorcist,**_ **but several months back I really got into the Yuusei Matsui manga** _ **Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro**_ **("Supernatural Detective Nougami Neuro"), so when I wrote the introduction's devious and condescending characterisation of Mephisto I guess the personality of Neuro was kind of at the forefront of my mind, haha.**

 **Well, I guess it's fine – they're pretty similar. Just like Mephisto, Neuro is a highly intelligent, powerful demon who masquerades as a human while 'allying' himself with human(s) for some human-world leverage; he has more eccentric dress sense, though less so than Mephisto's, and just like Mephisto he has a devious manipulator/overseer side and treats humans who lose their shit in front of him condescendingly. Heck, they both even have demonic grins with sharp teeth.**

 **Man, and I thought Mephisto and** _ **Izaya**_ **meeting would be cool…Mephisto and** _ **Neuro**_ **would be a match made in heaven (actually, I should most probably say in** _ **hell**_ **)!**

 **Anyway, I present to you the chapter!**

Chapter 3: The Overseers

High above the bustling floors of True Cross Academy, the secluded but extravagant Headmaster's Office remained still with the calm chatter that rung through its space.

Well, "calm" at least applied to Mephisto's half of the conversation.

By almost stark contrast, the young exorcist standing before his polished, wooden desk had gradually lost all sense of the word. The young man's face progressively crinkled further into unpleasant wrinkles of frustration, as his voice strained in his guttural attempt at mimicking the cacophony of a flock of parrots.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU 'DON'T HAVE THE TIME'!? YOU HAVE MORE TIME ON YOUR HANDS THEN OUR HIGH RANKS HAVE UNPAID OVERTIME SPENT _DEALING WITH YOUR NONSENSE_! SURELY _YOU_ , OF ALL PEOPLE, WOULD WANT TO ADD IN SECURITY MEASURES PROTECTING TAMERS FROM THEIR COLLEAGUES' SHAMEFUL INCOMPETENCE!"

Ah, humans…So primitive, so fickly tempered.

"I assure you, I am _preoccupied_ – and much smarter than to baby the 'oh-so-special' Tamer students just because the full-time others of their Meister have decided to jump ship. Now, if you have nothing more to do, I'm sure the parrots outside would _love_ to hear your temper tantrum."

Changing his nonchalant glance at the (now red-faced) exorcist into a devious leer to make him leave, he mocked a smoking gesture with a stick of Pocky from his half-finished box and ignored the loud door slam that inevitably sounded.

Finally, after dealing with the boredom of angry human whining, Mephisto could bask in the afternoon light shining through the windows, the whole room to himself once more. He slouched slightly in his chair, and dived into the train of thought he had wanted to indulge in all day.

He couldn't help the insatiable curiosity that devoured his mind with the vigour of starved yeast on sugar. The Demon King of Time had always been so powerful, capable of peeking in upon absolutely any organism – with few exceptions – within his interest, within his plane of existence, within his vast influence.

He had lived for so long, taken a fascination in so many humans and toyed with them to see what sort of outcomes would occur. An irrefutably twisted grin stretched across his features as a morbid interest in the Order's new situation filled him from within.

 _This_ was intriguing.

He let another of his all-seeing windows gaze down upon a secluded, dark alleyway, as a pair of Tamer defectors from True Cross started whispering to each other lowly and followed each other into a secret entrance.

Oh, he knew exactly what was going on. He let out an amused bark of a chuckle.

The Order would really be getting it now.

He supposed that maybe, just maybe, the Paladin and the rest of the leaders of the exorcists might start to harbour suspicions, and crack down on him for his lack of interference in the terrorist activities.

…but honestly, Mephisto couldn't care less about them.

After all, in such a bland and otherwise peaceful world, a new figure had risen to stir up change.

The mysterious, charismatic genius Zero, his face and motivations unknown…

What was this peace he wanted? How could he be so naive as to believe that humans and demons could possibly coexist without constantly battling against each other? It was a rather unorthodox ideal, and Mephisto was undeniably interested to have found an individual who entertained it.

Ah, yes – the mysterious person known as Zero intrigued Mephisto far too much to interfere.

After all, how else on earth would the masked man's little rebellion have lasted more than a week? Mephisto was one of the demon kings, and looking after the human world, after all, watching as their measly little forms bustled around in their cities like colonies of busied ants.

He was the one looking through the glass roof, watching everything that happened, through his little peepholes everywhere spotting every little nuance, every little detail that escaped human eyes.

If he wanted to, he could have easily discovered the enemy insiders within the Order, and the locations of the rebel hideouts. He could have quelled this rebellion weeks ago, perhaps before it even started.

But he didn't.

Because Mephisto didn't care.

Not about the safety of that precious Order.

After all, they were just temporary humans who he played with to see how events and conflicts escalated.

However, it seemed there was a far more interesting plaything for him to observe now.

This lone, masked rebel.

He could have easily crushed Zero, but no. It was far more interesting – the Demon King of Time decided – to just let the man play out his little rebellion fantasy, to try and exercise his ideals, to try and bring upon the exorcists the justice he believed they so rightly deserved…to see how the exorcists would respond.

He was far more invested in watching his playthings decide to conflict with each other, than sit there watching the ant farm as nothing squirmed.

A clash of ideals. Humans and demons clashing until an outcome settled itself, like dancing bubbles of water and oil in a bottle swirl in rushing torrents around each other's forms before separating. Or, watching the shapes in a lava lamp stretch, warp and contort into the realm of the bizarre until they settled again.

And Mephisto fixed his gaze onto those swirling colours with the outmost interest.

The snow globe had been shaken; who was he to let it settle, when he could watch the pretty snowstorm?

This was the first action that he'd had in quite a while. In fact, the moment the Grigori had been assassinated, he couldn't have been anything _other_ than intrigued…a cocked eyebrow and curious grin as he watched the rebel make his public debut, preaching loudly about his views of justice.

He had a feeling that something was coming. The rebel's hideout…the possible attacks…the defection of the Tamer exorcists... He could see it all. Perhaps he could even, with the click of his fingers, home in upon Zero's hideaway and witness the man without his mask himself. But he wouldn't; he wouldn't ruin the surprise, for himself or anyone else, of the true identity of their masked opponent. Wouldn't it be so fun to guess? After all, knowing so much and living so long, things could get a little boring. Why would he spoil the fun, real fun he hadn't had in so long?

Just how would Zero impact the ground upon which he stood? Would he become a harbinger of chaos, or one of change? Or, would he meet a swift demise before he had the chance to leave his mark on the world?

Mephisto scoffed.

 _Hardly._

He could sense the exhilarating foreboding of alarm and action waiting to eventually spring forth; whatever the case became, Zero would most _certainly_ not leave shallow footprints in his wake.

And Mephisto wanted to bask in every glorious minute of the conflict.

He would leave Zero alone and watch him make his moves, examine with a magnifying glass this new ant that tried to make itself a spider, to see how it wriggled…and watch the massive hordes of tiny bugs clamber chaotically over one another in a maelstrom of anarchy.

If the rest of the exorcist genuinely considered coming to him for help, they were utter fools. Did they honestly think that he would care to help them, to use his all-seeing abilities to end his amusement and solve _their_ problems? As the founder of the Academy, he was only a financial backer and an ally by consultation. He remained, as much as possible, a neutral observer, becoming benefactor of only those who he knew would entertain him. At first, this was the exorcists. Fighting away the demons left and right, hoping to allow humankind to survive and establish a social order in the centuries long passed, had interested him at such a time. However, with each passing centenary that novelty had grown old.

Now, _this_ was too interesting to let go. He was dying to just see how it all played out.

'Well now, Zero…

Time to _impress me_.'

* * *

It hadn't been very long before the news burst its way through the castle in the dark, depths of Gehenna and reached his ears.

A revolution? Amongst the humans?

No…not yet a revolution. A _rebellion_ – a bud of revolution in bloom, still preparing itself as it bathed in its soil and sucked up water through its roots, gradually growing as it waited for the moment to burst up through the ground.

With most demons in the dark realm seldom caring about the affairs of such lowly creatures as humans, the widespread news on changing events in Assiah was extremely abnormal. However, through some miracle, the fuss about the racket going on amongst the humans somehow founds its way up the hierarchy of the Demon Kings…and beyond.

Normally, the measly dealings of humans fell deaf on the ears of Satan, King of Gehenna, the most powerful demon in existence who had so little to do with weak creatures so below him…at least, so most of Gehenna's population thought about their leader. However, Satan paid attention to the messenger demon reporting to him about the Assiah-based rumours with hidden thoughtfulness.

He had no trouble admitting that humans were far inferior to demons in strength, simple worms and gnats by comparison. The measly exorcists of Assiah failed to fight his power on the Blue Night. They proudly puffed out their chests and called themselves humanity's ultimate defence against demons, yet they helplessly quivered under the might of his dark power, even when he was hindered by the unfortunate limitations of his living vessel. Despite this, he still held some merit and interest in monitoring the movements of the hypocritical humans in the diverse world they ruined. However, the sudden, new upheaval against the exorcists caused his interest to abruptly spike.

He honestly never expected something like _this_.

How could it possibly be that a human actually believed in the despised lives of demons enough to reciprocally call humanity out for its flaws?

…Then his mind flipped back to Yuri.

It seemed humans like that still existed, he supposed, though few and far between.

…But still, _existed_.

He and Yuri…

It had been an interesting notion to the demonic overlord – her dream…the way she'd cared about demons…

This Zero, this intimidating figure, this revolutionary leader who dared to challenge social norms, was trying to fight the exorcists into the corner.

However, it was in hopes of creating justice and peace between humans and demons, by first through means of initial bloodshed.

(The King of Gehenna knew, with no doubt at all, that blood would have to be shed. The oldest entity in hell was _not_ naïve.)

It was rather interesting, Satan mused, that Zero started an upheaval among the exorcists with such peculiar motivations…

It was just like his and Yuri's dream. Zero reminded him of it all – everything that they did together, the talk of unifying humans and demons.

He had hoped to bring the two worlds together, and even almost brought his ambitions to satisfying fruition a few years ago. Though, his two spawn, the human and demon spawns – his and Yuri's _own sons_ – had stopped him.

But…perhaps…this Zero was trying to do what he couldn't. This Zero…already existing in the human world…could be the key to uniting the worlds of humans and demons, the key to his and Yuri's dream…

Who was Zero? What were his motivations? Unfortunately, he did not have enough firsthand witness of current events in the human world to know – his essence was too powerful for any vessels to gaze into Assiah for too long, and what small portion of his presence was able to leak through struggled to get past the exorcists' anti-demon barriers. Besides, even with the ability to take short glimpses, he was still busy putting filthy lower demons in their places and musing over his previous attempt to merge the two worlds to bother. His messengers were of no help either. Even they were unable to bring back sufficient information about the masked man's identity.

He was sure, though, that his second son was using his all-seeing eyes to spectate the unfurling conflict with great vigour. But he doubted that such a runaway, neutral as he was, would tell him anything. After all, Samael would be far too interested in watching the humans panic and their petty leaders make decisions. In fact, the Demon King of Time was probably watching at that very moment as the conflict began to further simmer, slowly growing to a boiling point.

Beyond that, it was common information among the demons' ranks that Zero openly declared himself as much an enemy of Satan as he was of the exorcists'. Unless the masked man changed his stance towards Gehenna's residents, Satan knew that putting the enigma in a situation of merit would be extremely difficult until Zero came out of hiding.

But whoever this Zero was, whoever he would find out to be Zero, he could not deny that this rebel was of great potential use to him. He would have to find Zero eventually. He would meet Zero. He would assess this new being and its motivations…

…even if it took excessive force.

 **Again, sorry this chapter is a bit short. I haven't exactly got many ideas for the long term, since this is primarily a creative outlet fanfic, so I do what comes to me – and I felt like this was necessary (at least with Mephisto, otherwise someone would probably wonder how Mephisto hadn't quelled the rebellion swiftly with his abilities of observation) and it lays out some interesting threads for later. Since I had the idea for this, and got it out, I really had to post it so I had something to say I wasn't dead, since the next chapter of my "resurrected" Soul Eater/Ouran fanfic is still not finished yet.**

 **Since I finally have more motivation to get off my seat and work more on my actually** _ **published**_ **fics this year (hopefully I can keep it up…), I do have some ideas for the next chapters after this one, so I may get some of them out in creative venting while I try to fix my aforementioned SE/OHSHC crossover (which is my only other published work of focus right now). So, hey, even if this chapter was shorter you might get more later without having to wait two years (hopefully not! I'm very sporadic with writing.)**

 **I'll see you in another chapter, regardless of when it comes!**


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